The Next by Andrew Hujsak
e-mail: andyhme@mix-net.net
http://www.mix-net.net/~andyhme
This short story is place about 10,000 years in the future, all life on
Earth had been destroyed by a great disaster, including those of Crystal
Tokyo. The people in this story are decendants from a group of colonists who
had left during the reign of Neo-Queen Serenity. The name and location of
Earth had been long lost in their history...
The Next
In the Far Reaches of space, beyond the limits of the solar system, all was
quiet. For the moment, anyway. It wasn't long, however, before a disturbance
started to be evident. Space twisted in upon itself, the lines of distortion
converging into a single point and rapidly expanded. In a moment, the
starship emerged from that non-etheral region known as, for a lack of a
better name, subspace, which allowed the vessel to travel between the stars
in a fraction of the time it would in 'normal' space.
The vessel was, at first glance, sleek and gleaming, but on closer
inspection, its hull was actually finely scarred with an uncountable number
of small streaks from the collisions with the fine grains of space dust
during its long journey through the galaxy.
Ordinarily, the vessel would not have even paused, for the system it had
just passed, for all outward appearances, was an ordinary G-class system
with nothing in particular interesting about it. But the ship, being a
science vessel, was loaded down with detection instrumentation, and had
picked up and unusual energy signal as it had passed by, prompting the
occupants to re-enter normal space to check it out. It was faint, and the
rapid pace of the ship hadn't allowed for pinpointing the source, but it was
unusual enough to allow a tracing.
Turning toward the center of the system, the ship proceeded to follow the
signal toward its source. The system, noted by the scientists on board, had
ten primary planets. The outermost planet could just barely be classified as
such, it being little more than a cold, lifeless chunk of rock. They were
surprised to find remnants of civilization were upon it, ancient structures
crumbled from age and disuse. How could any living beings have survived on
such a cold and hostile environment? Well, obviously, they hadn't, for it
was clearly abandoned, and had been for some time. They didn't know the name
of the planet, though it had one, and it wasn't the source of the signal
they sought, so they spent little time concerned with it. It was thus they
left it behind to continue on their way. And once again, Nemesis was left to
itself.
The next planetary orbit they passed was that of a somewhat larger planet,
though still a small one. It was too far away in its path around its star to
bother with taking a detour to check it out further, and it wasn't the
source of that enigmatic signal either. Little did they realize that at that
same moment, they were being observed by a lone occupant of that planet.
was the single thought of that
being, the guardian of Pluto. She then opened a portal and stepped through.
The ship continued inward, leaving behind the orbit of the planet Pluto.
The signal had been getting stronger the further sunward the ship went,
passing the orbits of two other planets which were also too far away to
warrant deviation from their course. They were, however going to pass close
by to the sixth planet out, a gas giant with a spectacular display of rings
of multi colored rock, and several moons in orbit about it. Initiating a
scan, they found signs of previous civilization, also in an advanced state
of decay, and seemingly much older than that of the outermost planet.
Speculation arose among the occupants as to the level of technology the
people of this system had once had, for it must have been great at one time,
and wondered as to what led to its decline. The energy emissions from the
ship as it passed created a small though significant disturbance, causing
the entity there to awaken from her long slumber. Sensing the one she had
waited for aboard the vessel, she knew the prophecy was coming to pass, and
she, as had the other, opened a portal and stepped through..
Continuing onward, the ship approached the fifth planet, another gas giant,
one whose atmosphere was a swirl of multicolored gasses, a violent
atmosphere of huge storms and electrical energy. The resultant interference
masked the signal they were following, forcing them to alter their course to
maintain a lock on it. Rising above the plane of the elliptic, they
continued onward. There were two entities upon one of the moons of that
planet, the one once called Europa, which observed the ship as it passed on
by.
queried the first, the one from Pluto.
replied the other, the lone resident,
also the Guardian of the massive planet below. The two stepped through the
waiting portal, going to the fourth, second, and first planets, awakening
their respective Guardians, then all proceeding to their final destination.
Having determined that the signal they were following originated upon the
third planet of the system, the ship quickly made its approach and settled
into orbit around it. Initial scans revealed it to be a lush, green world
two-thirds of which was covered with salt water oceans. The sight of it
caused a wave of homesickness to pass over the occupants of the ship, for it
was very similar to their own homeworld, so very far away. Closer scrutiny
revealed that, though there were no intelligent life upon this world, it had
once been densely populated, a thriving world which had been wiped out by a
massive disaster, the scars of which were mostly healed with time long
passed.
Pinpointing the source of their quest, a shuttle was prepared to take a
landing party to the surface. There was a small hitch in the plans which
caused a short delay.
"Father, please. I want to go with you! I... I feel, somehow, that I must
go with you, like I'm being called!" This was a young girl, fifteen standard
years of age, and the daughter of the lead scientist of the ship. She had
always been a little strange, in a way, a dreamer. She had always talked of
being a princess someday, and the ruler of a great empire. She had also
related nighttime dreams of a beautiful city on a lovely planet, which would
be the center of that empire. Most had chuckled at her, some had shaken
their heads in pity, saying that such a girl would not be following in her
father's footsteps, and it would be a great loss.
"No, it could be dangerous. I would feel much better knowing you were safe
here in the ship."
"But..." she was then interrupted by a crewman.
"Sir, we've located the source of the signal."
"Let's see it."
The view screen cleared and centered itself on a somewhat large island, just
off the eastern coast of the largest continent. As they watched, there was a
glint of light reflected from the surface. Startled, and intrigued, the head
scientist asked for magnification. Once the viewer had cleared once again,
everyone caught their breath, as they saw towering crystal spires reaching
high into the sky. They were obviously artificial structures, and apparently
in prime shape, a disparity to the desolation around them. The girl peered
at them in astonishment, then turned to her father.
"It's them! That is the city I see in my dream! You HAVE to let me go with
you!"
The girls' father gazed down at her, then looked at his companions. They
knew about the dreams, and this revelation that it was accurate had them all
numb with wonder. Then each, one by one, slowly nodded their heads in
agreement. The girls' father sighed, knowing when he was beat, and agreed.
Preparations were quickly completed, and the shuttle, which was named
Serenity, left the mother ship, Seeker.